2020 END-OF-YEAR WRAP-UP CONTENT: An extraordinary year in pictures

Doctors Without Borders (MSF)'s 2020 Pictures Of The Year collection from December 2019 to November 2020, documents a year in which MSF professional teams around the world responded to crises, emergencies and pressing healthcare needs.


A diverse range of staff, local and agency photographers captured our teams at work responding to outbreaks of measles and tuberculosis (TB), rescuing people from the Mediterranean Sea, providing assistance to people who have been displaced due to conflicts, giving medical care to people in the wake of disaster, such as the Beirut explosion or storms in some parts of the world. 
 

Beirut: 2 months after the blast Chahadeh Tabbal is 86 years old. He and his daughter Hoda, 60, are unemployed because of the Lebanese economic crisis. The only support they receive is from local associations and Chahadeh's other daughter, who helps them. They live in the Geitawi neighbourhood of Beirut, which is located near the site of the August 4 explosion that annihilated the city's port. Their windows were shattered in the blast but they do not have the money to repair them. They are waiting for the help of an association to repair their house. Photographer: Mohammad Ghannam
Ethiopian Refugees Crossing - Hamadayet Border The Hamadayet border crossing, where refugees from Ethiopia cross the river into Sudan. New arrivals take whatever belongings they can carry with them, some have their livestock’s and others left with nothing. Photographer: Jason RizzoMSF Supports Nursing Homes in Houston, Texas, During COVID-19 Adelia Patterson, wellness and life enrichment director at Focused Care at Beechnut long-term care facility, plays her ukelele while both she and the resident sing. MSF conducted infection prevention and control (IPC) training and mental health and wellness training with medical and non-medical staff at Beechnut and other nursing homes in Houston, Texas, during the summer and fall of 2020. Photographer: Christoper Lee
Revolting attack on pregnant women and babies One of the wards in the maternity. An unknown number of assailants (reportedly three or four according to media accounts and other statements, which we cannot confirm) stormed the Dasht-e-Barchi hospital Tuesday morning 12th May at around 10:00 AM local time. They forced their way in and the assault lasted for approximately four hours. During the attack most of the staff sought shelter in various areas of the building, but reports indicate that many people lost their lives, among them mothers and new-born babies. Photographer: Frederic BonnotDasht-e-Barchi maternity, West Kabul Zakia (32 ans), just gave birth to twins. Photographer: Sandra Calligaro
A long road back to normal Lanao del Sur, Philippines - Displaced children play by the open fields near the Sagunsungan temporary shelter over two years since the siege of the capital, Marawi. Photographer: Veejay Villafranca/MSF
Male rape victim A young man has sought refuge in Itota, where we interview him, after having been violated by armed men in a nearby village. Photographer: Davide ScalengheAn X-ray taken at MSF’s emergency trauma hospital in the Tabarre area of Port-au-Prince. A bullet is lodged in the patient’s spine. Haiti, December 2019. Photographer: Nicolas Guyonnet
Nigeria - Malaria in Borno state An IDP-camp resident in Bama chops firewood in the camp. Firewood is a precious commodity for many IDPs in Borno, and people often trade food and other essential items for it. Without fire and fuel to cook, IDPs cannot cook the food rations that are distributed for them. Photographer: Scott HamiltonRotation 7 - Training on board on course from Marseille to the central Mediterranean The MSF and SOS MEDITERRANEE teams were conducting simulation exercise of search and rescue at sea. Photographer: Anthony Jean
Sea Watch 4 - Rotation01 - Life On Deck SeaWatch4 already has 201 survivors on board, denied a place of safety until date release of this photo. Yet as EU & maritime authorities again turn a deaf ear to the cries of people in distress at sea - and despite still being over 6hrs away - the ship has altered course toward MVLouiseMichel. Photographer: Hannah Wallace Bowman
Measles Vaccination Campaign in Timbuktu A boatman crossing the Niger river in Timbuktu region, northern Mali. Photographer: Mohamed Dayfour
Heavy floods threaten the lives of thousands of people in Greater Pibor South Sudan. The Greater Pibor Administrative Area. Lanyeri. September 10, 2020. A boy measuring his weight at MSF’s clinic in Lanyeri payam. An MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières) mobile clinic brings life-saving medical care to Lanyeri after the flooding has made the roads impassable. Photographer: Tetiana GaviukWound and burn care medical point Hamza is four years old. He is receiving wound care treatment in the MSF medical point in Karantina, Beirut. MSF has established a fixed point in the Mar Mikhael and Karantina neighborhoods in Beirut, two of the areas most impacted by the blast, to provide medical support to the people affected by the explosion. The team provides wound care (dressings), rapid consultations for people with non-communicable diseases, as well as psychological first aid. Photographer: Mohamad Cheblak
COVID-19 in the Amazon region Municipal health system's worker talks to family during house-to-house visit in lake Mirini region. Photographer: Diego BaravelliRohingya refugees in Bangladesh three years after their exodus Abu Siddik is from Rakhine state in Myanmar. He now lives in a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar with his two daughters, three sons and his wife. In the photo, he is at the MSF Kutupalong hospital with his five-year-old son Rashid Ullah, who is recovering from some wounds. Photographer: Hasnat Sohan
Athens evictions - Somma Sediqi Portrait of Soma Sediqi and her husband. Soma Sediqi and her husband are from Kabul. They have two baby children. “Life in Afghanistan was impossible. Every day there was violence and bombings. There was no future for our family and no medical treatment for me. When you leave your place, you get to a point where you cannot go back. I have met people who said they would rather die than go back. I would never want to go back. Fear of explosions and bombs cannot be compared to anything.” "We arrived in Lesbos in June 2018. Moria camp was horrible and scary. I was afraid all the time. Every day was a traumatic experience." The family stayed in a container with 20 other people for five months before being transferred to Athens. But after they received refugee status, they were told to leave their accommodation. We didn’t expect this. They surprised us. One day we just saw someone else in our room and they told us ‘we have moved all your stuff to the entrance of the hotel'. My son has a severe medical condition that affects the normal development of the kidney. My husband was born with polio, an infectious disease that resulted in the complete paralysis of his left leg.” Despite the eviction, the young parents managed to enroll in the Helios programme and they moved to an apartment in Athens. However, the programme only lasts six months, and so the family will soon face the streets again. “We borrowed money from everyone we know. We needed to give one month’s rent in advance and one month’s deposit, in total 700 euros. The rent is 246 euros while we get 396 per month. Mostly the fridge is off, the light is off, we try to not use electricity. And soon we will have to leave this place, too. I am very thankful for many things and I have met many great people in Greece. There are things that work well in this system. But the government should see us as people and not as numbers.” Photographer: Enri CANAJAbagana camp cooking area A young woman cooks an evening meal for her family in an open-air cooking area Abagana camp. Photographer: Scott Hamilton
COVID-19 Antwerp 'Washing Street' Because of the lack of re-usable aprons MSF constructed 'Washing streets’ in three hospitals in Antwerp (Flanders, Belgium). With the MSF expertise on washing and disinfection from other contexts where we are working (ex. Ebola) we have reached a ‘process’ that can clean and disinfect re-usable aprons in Belgium. The used (dirty) aprons are put in a specific in a washing machine cycle with a 2 in 1 washing powder that can clean and disinfect. After the cycle the washed (clean) aprons are controlled on quality (holes, dirt, …). After the control the aprons need to dry before folding and going back to the COVID-services in the hospital for use. We are washing, disinfecting and drying in each hospital around 500 aprons a day with 5 washing machines and 6 people. Photographer: MSF
Measles intervention in Boso Manzi Measles vaccines are being delivered by motorbike from Lisala to Boso Manzi, Mongala province, a hard-to-reach area of Northern DRC badly hit by the measles epidemic. In February 2020, MSF sent here emergency teams to set up treatment and vaccination activities. Des vaccins contre la rougeole sont acheminés en moto depuis Lisala jusque Boso Manzi, dans la province de la Mongala, une région du nord de la RDC difficile d’accès et durement frappée par l’épidémie de rougeole. En février 2020, MSF y a déployé une équipe d’urgence pour mener une vaste intervention de vaccination et de prise en charge. Photographer: Caroline Thirion
MSF Measles Intervention Bossangoa: Maxime Story Maxime and Yvonne in the measles hospital ward. “I have insisted with my family to take Maxime to the health post, I knew it was measles. We haven’t had anybody getting sick from this disease for years; however I recognised the symptoms because I remember the last epidemic, when I was a child” says Yvonne. “At that time, the traditional medicine was the only remedy, and there were no NGOs, doctors or hospitals in this region. Nowadays the situation has improved, we have a bit more access to healthcare, but it’s not enough: children are still dying in my community” says Yvonne. Maxime has been sick at home for three days, he had fever and he didn’t want to eat. Yvonne comes from Bofiré, a village a few kilometers away from Benzambé MSF supported health post, where she first took Maxime while being sick. In her community, many children suffer from measles, and most families prefer to treat the disease with traditional medicine. Maxime was brought to the MSF supported medical centre in Benzembe village as he was very ill with measles and needed hospitalisation. He was taken to the MSF supported hospital in Bossangoa, where his father’s first wife, Yvonne, accompanied him. His mother, Balantine, stayed home in Bofiré, a village at about 45 km distance from Bossangoa, and close to Benzembé. Yvonne is the first wife of Maxim's father and Maxime is a child of the second wife Balantine. Yvonne’s children are grown up, and they have left years ago, but she stayed in her husband’s house to help the Balatine to take care of her children. Patients who are referred by MSF mobile clinics to the hospital can come with a care giver, who is often a relative, a tutor or someone close in the community. Photographer: James OatwayIdlib under the attacks of Assad regime and its supporters IDLIB, SYRIA - FEBRUARY 19: Abandoned and destroyed buildings are seen in Ariha district in Idlib, Syria on February 19, 2020. Ariha district located in south of Idlib has turned into a ghost town while civilians were fleing towards Turkish border due to the attacks of the Bashar al-Assad regime and its supporters. (Photo by Muhammed Said/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images). Photographer: Muhammed Said
Libya: Crisis Within a Crisis - Mohammed Testimony Mohammed, from Mali has lived in Libya since 2015. He wants to return to Mali but says at the moment hasn't enough money. He arrived in the country to escape the conflict and to find work to sustain him and his family. Since he arrived in Libya he has found work as a labourer for the municipality, but due to the low payment, he also collects scrap metals in the dump close to the entrance of the city to earn more money. He receives 1 Libyan Dinar (€0.64) for each 1kg of metal he collects. Photographer: Giulio PiscitelliMSF Intervention in Leganés Hospital instalado por Medicos Sin Fronteras para tratar coronavirus cases in Leganes. Photographer: Olmo Calvo

Angela Makamure

Press Officer, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Southern Africa

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